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Egyptian armed forces chief visits Libya's Benghazi

Xinhua, May 17, 2017 Adjust font size:

Chief of Staff of Egyptian Armed Forces, Lieutenant-General Mahmoud Hijazi, on Wednesday arrived in the Libyan eastern city of Benghazi for talks over cooperation and fighting against terrorism.

"With a high-level military delegation, Hijazi was received by the Libyan Chief of Staff of the Libyan Army, Abdul-Razzaq Al-Nadori, at Benina International Airport, officially opened after three years of closure due to military operations against terrorists in Benghazi," a source in the Libyan Armed Forces Information Office told Xinhua.

Hijazi will go to the headquarters of the army's General Directorate in Marj city to meet the Commander-in-Chief of the Libyan Army, Major General Khalifa Hafer, to discuss military cooperation between the two countries and to confirm Cairo's support for the Libyan army in its fight against terrorism, the source added.

This is the first visit by an Arab or western military official to Benghazi since the launch of the army's military campaign on extremist groups in the city three years ago.

The Egyptian authorities appointed Hijazi in August 2016 in a committee to follow up the Libyan file, aimed to conduct contacts between the crisis teams, and to bring them closer together in support of the political agreement.

The committee invited Fayez Sarraj, UN-backed Prime Minister, and General Khalifa Haftar to visit Cairo on several occasions, to discuss means to solve the dispute between the two officials.

The unannounced visit comes one day after the third anniversary of the military operation called "Dignity" which was launched by Haftar on May 2014 against extremist groups in Benghazi.

Hafter, who was appointed by the eastern-based Libyan parliament as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, gained control of all the eastern cities of the country months after the launch of the military campaign, except for the city of Derna and small areas of Benghazi.

"The armed forces will not leave Tripoli as a haven for terrorists," Haftar said on the occasion of the third anniversary of the his military campaign. Endit